‘Deer Camp’ staggers onto CSC’s campus
Memorial Hall’s Auditorium was packed Tuesday night, with members from the community outnumbering college students. Some of the audience members wore camouflage jackets and flannel shirts. One man sported a blaze orange hat, so other hunters would not accidentally shoot him in the auditorium. This might have been the opening day of deer season, but it was actually the opening night of “Deer Camp,” a hunting comedy.
“Deer Camp” is the third show in the 2011-12 Galaxy Series. The musical was written by Gene Jurek, and the music was composed by Doug Spartz. Ross Young directed the production. The cast consisted of four actors, Tony Papenfuss, John Voldstad, John Kunik, and Anthony Zadra, who portray four middle-age hunters on their annual hunting trip.
Although the men have gone “hunting” for years, they have never actually shot a deer, so their wives tell them to bring home a buck or the hunting trips end. The show consists of the men desperately trying to concoct a plot that will get them a deer, as none of them remembered to bring their rifles. They are also averse to the idea of actually leaving their hunting shack, which resembled the provincial man cave. There were 11 musical numbers in this show, accompanied by dancing. The actors seemed like a red neck barbershop quartet; their singing was enjoyable, but it also did not seem implausible when four men in camouflage and boots burst into song and dance. The audience loved this show and laughed uproariously the entire time.
I expected this show to be similar to Patrick McManus’ entertaining tales of hunting trip mishaps. What I saw was a crass production that consisted of nothing but the over-use of stereotypes for comedic effect, crass jokes, and the gratuitous consumption of alcohol. The result was a low-brow production.
The show relied extensively on stereotypes for comedic effect. I realize that the stereotypes were meant to be entertaining, but since the entire show was one gross stereotype, it stopped being funny after about five minutes. The hunters are portrayed as crude, juvenile men who are merely interested in busty women and beer. Their wives are typical old nags who live to clip coupons and make their husbands miserable. One song mocks one of the hunter’s ex-girlfriends who became a lesbian. Small town citizens are portrayed as red necks who would be amused by this kind of show. Just because you wear Mossy Oak does not mean you automatically qualify for the “Red neck of the Year” award, which would be made out of beer cans, if this show were any indicator. Every stereotype imaginable was included, from men’s obsession with football to women’s love of shopping. Since the show never got beyond these generalizations, there wasn’t much depth to it.
Almost as prevalent as the excessive use of stereotypes was the exorbitant consumption of beer. The show started with the hung-over hunters drinking beer for breakfast. They sang about beer in almost every song. They worshipped beer. They panicked when they ran out of beer. This show seemed out of place on a college campus where students are told that it is possible to have fun without alcohol. The hunters chugged beer for the entire show, yet somehow showed no side effects, unless loutish behavior counts.
The rest of this show’s humor was crude and boorish. One entire scene consisted of nothing but flatulence jokes and a song about the same “manly art.” Another song had three of the hunters performing like Chippendale dancers. Seeing older men gyrate and thrust to stripper music was disturbing. I don’t ever need to see an older man strip to his boxers again. When one of the men decided to take a woman on a date, the Viagra jokes abounded. The hunters finally killed a deer by chucking beer cans at it.
One of the hunters stated, “What happens at deer camp, stays at deer camp.” That’s fine; I just wish I’d stayed at home. My only thought as I left Memorial Hall and stepped out into the cold air was, “Forget coffee, I need a double-shot of culture.”
